1. Overview

Sight Words Book Land is a twist on the ever-popular Candy Land board game, incorporating some reading into the game play. The game gives children many opportunities for sight words repetition, while the board game format keeps it fun and engaging.

Sight Words Book Land

This game works best with children that are already familiar with the Candy Land game. Trying to learn both the game and the words at the same time can be too much, particularly for younger children.

The game is most fun when played in a small group of 2-4 players, but a child can also play the game by himself. As a bonus, younger (non-reading) siblings can play along as well. They simply move according to the colored dots on the cards, without having to read the sight words.

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2. Materials

The game requires just a few basic items: a game board, cards, and game pieces.

• Book Land Board
• Book Land Cards
• Color Printer
• Cardstock paper (approximately 110 lb / 200 gsm)
• Scissors
• Tape
• Game Pieces (checkers, coins, blocks, etc.)

To make the Book Land board, print out a Book Land board on four sheets of cardstock paper. Trim the edges off the four sheets and tape them together with clear tape. Using tape allows the board to be folded for easy storage in your sight words file when not in use.

For the cards, either select one of the template files below, or use the Book Land Card Creator to create your own customized set of cards. Print onto cardstock paper and cut along the dotted lines.

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3. Activity

Play the game as you would regularly play Candy Land. Once you’ve cut out the cards, shuffle them and place them in a face-down stack. The players begin by placing their game pieces on the START arrow. The first player picks a card from the stack and has to read the sight word printed on the card. If they don’t know a word or can’t say the word in less than 10 seconds, then their turn stops and we do a quick correction to help them learn the word.

Once the player has read the word correctly, they can move their game piece forward according to the colored dots on the card. For example: if the card has one green dot, move your game piece forward on the path to the first green dot you encounter. If the card has two blue dots, move your piece forward past the first blue dot to the second blue dot you come across on the path. Then the next player picks a card and takes their turn.

The game finishes when all the players get to the FINISH square, with the first player to the end being declared the winner. You do not have to land exactly on the last colored dot to finish the game.

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4. Printable Game Board and Card Templates

You can use the same game board every time you play Book Land, and simply print out new sets of cards as your child’s reading skills improve. One set contains 54 cards. If you select a word list with fewer than 54 words, some words will simply be repeated.

4.1 Custom Book Land Cards

Use the Sight Words Book Land Card Creator to create your own custom set of cards. This generator lets you select from both existing sight words lists (e.g., Dolch & Fry) as well as allowing you to add custom words (e.g., current vocabulary words, names, etc.).

To download a template, right-click and select Save As.

These Book Land boards and cards are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Basically, you are permitted complete license to use the resources, provided you leave the attribution hallmark (our logo) on the resources. We would be happy to see the materials used in the classroom, in the home, as part of your tutoring business, or however you see fit. You do not need to contact us for permission to use the materials. We want you to use them!

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